As the new year edges ever closer, it is a time to reflect on the year that has been, and look ahead to what the next 12 months might bring. For the tech industry, this means considering what platforms and services emerged in 2014 and what the future holds for them in 2015. The cloud was by far the most popular technology of the year, being adopted by numerous agencies and opening up a whole new world of applications and services. While even more businesses will likely migrate to the cloud in 2015, one thing that is sure to take place is increased security policies for such platforms.
A new report from enterprise cloud service provider NaviSite has found that, while the adoption of cloud computing by businesses has risen steadily over the last year, concerns about security and compliance are still holding some organizations back.
According to the study, one-third of respondents from U.S. enterprises have moved between 50 and 70 percent of their IT infrastructure into a cloud environment. Key drivers for the migration included improvements in uptime, reliability and enhanced service levels. However, almost 100 percent of U.S. survey participants cited at least some level of concern about their ability to secure privileged data.
“Our survey shows that security is still one of the biggest concerns when looking at cloud or colocation,” said NaviSite senior director of product management Chris Patterson.
Patterson added that security and compliance being listed as major concerns related to cloud migration was to be expected as organizations begin to move more traditional, legacy workloads onto hosted platforms.
Offering cloud, BYOD safely
The report revealed that cloud security considerations also extended to the use of bring-your-own-device policies. A key factor for 25 percent of U.S. respondents evaluating desktop-as-a-service solutions was the ability to keep enterprise information safe while still being able to provide employees with BYOD capabilities. More than half of participating organizations said they were not currently utilizing a BYOD initiative, though deploying one was a priority and 50 percent of respondents reported considering putting one in place during the coming year.
For any company looking to deploy cloud services or a cloud-based BYOD program in the new year, implementing a related security program is a must. One of the most reliable ways to protect enterprise data and networks when utilizing BYOD policies is employing Faronics’s Deep Freeze Cloud. This program provides layered security features, such as anti-virus, application whitelisting, reboot and restore and user access management, and enables them to be deployed within a cloud environment and from any connected device. Deploying Deep Freeze Cloud allows companies to migrate to the cloud and offer BYOD programs while still ensuring enterprise data security.
